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Thursday, August 11, 2005

This sort of thing happens to me at least a few times a week. I'll get emails from publishers wanting to help promote some book, but they'll give no link to where people can find out about the book. Or a non-profit group will mail a lengthy announcement to me, but then will include no link where I can direct people to read the press release for themselves.

Welcome to the wacky word of DIY promo, Dean! That’s probably the #1 complaint of any media outlet, old or new. Too often, people promoting anything presume the recipient of the release or whatever already knows things they don’t. If you’re sending out an announcement about anything, don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll maybe offend somebody by giving them too much information, as there is no such thing.

There is also a “magical thinking” component, which mystifies me even more. This was part of the discussion at the Yuma Sun Reader Board meeting I attended awhile back. One of the members is a soccer mom, and a coach complained the paper never covers their games. Our board member asked if anyone had phoned to let them know about the games, and the coach insisted the paper “already has that information.”

Well no, they actually don’t. If nobody tells them, they don’t know, it’s that simple. There are no magic sensors anywhere, no bloodhounds patrolling the area sniffing out news. Yet this odd idea persists.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Terry Teachout unwittingly describes the essence of the WOLves Promotional Group here. His focus is on artists, but there isn't any reason why those in other fields beyond writing couldn't be part of the writer's Group!

if you’re an artist, ask yourself this: how are you using the new media to interact with your audience and spread the word about your work?I’ve said this before, but it can’t be said often enough: the mainstream media aren’t especially interested in serious art, and such interest as they do have is diminishing daily. If you’re looking to big-city newspapers to start reviewing more literary fiction, or to PBS to telecast more ballet and modern dance, or to your local radio station to continue carrying the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday broadcasts, you’re kidding yourself. They don’t care. Which leaves you with two options. You can sit around complaining about their indifference—or you can do an end run around them and use the new media to reach out directly to your audience, both existing and potential.

Heck, we could even start calling it the WOLves Writers & Artists. We're all doing the same thing, and appreciate each other's disciplines.

I, too, am a middle-aged digital immigrant—but I’m here, now, communicating directly with you via a medium that barely existed five years ago. No, it wasn’t easy, but I’ve rethought my expectations about what the mainstream media can do for me, and now I’m starting to do some of it myself. You can do the same thing, so long as you let go of your preconceptions about the dominant role of the old media in your professional life.

Monday, April 04, 2005

It was never intended for me to spout my opinions, which is one the reasons it took so long for me to put my name up there.

You might ask what was it for, then?

Well, it goes like this: it was originally intended back in 2003, to serve as a central location for a group of writers (associated with Writer On Line, hence the name) who were learning to promote their books, to report their booksignings and other events. That didn't happen. Back in those days, most of the book authors I knew were pretty much disillusioned with anything online, and particularly suspicious of blogs. Many of them insisted they would never, ever have anything to do with something as weird and unknown as blogs.

By now, as many of you know, that idea has changed. Lots of authors are using blogs to promote their books, and written works of all kinds, and so when Writer Online Magazine's new owner approached me to try something like this again, I figured it was worth a shot.

As part of their Writer's Learning Center program, we're offering a class on writer's promotion. This is not the kind of class where you study for a while and then go out and put into practice what you learned, it's a hands-on active group that will begin promoting from the git-go. Meanwhile, I'll be giving the newbies the benefit of my two years in the blogosphere, and many more years promoting things in other ways. It won't all be about blogs, because writers need to get out and about in their communities as well. So there'll be a bit on how to go about the in-person side of being a self-promoter.

As we get the newbies comfortable with blogs, and we all get comfortable with each other, there will be group events and plenty of networking going on! Maybe some offline group events too - who knows? Nobody has ever done anything like this before, so there's really no way to know how it will all unfold. Something I do know is that there's plenty of power in even the smallest group of blogs; and it's also a big help to be part of a group of people who are all doing the same things.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Scott Rosenberg has a roundup of various posts talking about the possibilities.

The basic idea here is that the Internet provides many indie publishers with the ability to serve niche markets, and even smaller niches within those markets. It's no longer the day of the mass-market publication, where a few books get major success, while smaller publishers languish in obscurity.

Monday, September 06, 2004

Wayne's got a post on proper attire for bizblogging, and I'd like to take it one step further.

If you get yourself an appearance on radio, that's another place where you can promote your books without too much concern about sartorial splendor. Many radio programs -- even local ones -- do their interviews by phone. I've been on the air in a lot of places from England to Oregon to Florida and never left the office!

And if you're wondering, most often a t-shirt and "comfortable" shorts are the dress code.

Thursday, June 24, 2004

It’s been a long time since I’ve been sent one of these, but there are still some companies that don’t get the basic idea that spam is not a good marketing tool, no matter who’s doing it.

My inbox today gave me a missive from a company purporting to have a variety of “media contacts lists” available. This included not only all kinds of media, but bookstores, libraries and universities. Each individual list was priced beginning at several hundred dollars.

The problem with these lists (spam issues aside) is that you can’t know if 1) if they are even accurate or 2) if your intended contacts even accept this kind of out-of-the-blue communication.

Sometime last summer, I saw a list produced by a company that does not spam, and has a demonstrated knowledge of good business practices. There were hundreds of contacts on this list, but the ones I recognized were quite literally, years old. I felt sorry for the writer who’d spent so much money for useless information.

There isn’t any shortcut to building your own relationships and lists of contacts. It may seem like this takes longer, but how much time and energy would you waste blasting information to dead ends?

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Probably the biggest question I’ve seen so far in my reading of various blogs and etc. related to BloggerCon is: How do I get noticed?

Although some people believe it’s now impossible to get noticed or develop a large readership due to the sheer number of blogs, or that you need to “know somebody,” or have an advertising budget, I think it is possible to be noticed and be successful without all those things. I also think that it will always be possible, regardless of the number of blogs, but you need to commit time and energy to doing it.

Saturday, April 03, 2004

From Jim Munroe's blog: "The cover of The Sweetest Taboo has the tagline, "The best things in life are never free." I've decided to retaliate against this smug sentiment by releasing a free e-book version of Everyone In Silico. I've distributed thousands of copies of my previous novels in free e-book form since the 2000 release of Angry Young Spaceman, but not for EIS — I was curious to see if it would impact my sales significantly. "